Essay about Handmaids Tale vs Persepolis - 971 Words

David Miller Oppression on Women in Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis Marjane Satrapi, in Persepolis writes about a memoir of a little girl growing in Iran. She refers to a secular pre-revolutionary time through contrast, the oppressive characteristics of the fundamentalist government upon women in specifics. In comparison, her work is very similar to Margaret Atwood’s, A Handmaid’s Tale, in which the central character, Offred, reflects upon her former life’s freedom, cherishing her former name and in doing so, emphasizes the isolated and enslaved live that she must now endure. Although Both Margaret Atwood and Marjane Satrapi show how a totalitarian state oppresses women in different ways by†¦show more content†¦In Gilead everyone was supposed to dress alike depending on the social status they belonged to, masking their individuality, which was highly discouraged. This actually stripped the girls of their actual identities made them all look identical to their class. Similarly the veils impact on women’s life in Pe rsepolis was enormous. She always wondered as to ‘why did the women have to wear it?’ and the reasoning the fundamentalist gave was â€Å"so to protect women from all the potential rapist, they decreed that wearing the veil was obligatory† (74). Satrapi says because of this backward thought process and the rules of the Islamic religion, women were forced to wear veil. However one would argue why wouldn’t these people deal with the rapist than have every women and every girl child were a veil. Although the main characters from both the books live under restrictions especially in their ways of dressing, both highly dislike what they are suppose to be wearing. The narrator in Handmaid’s Tale describes the out fit she is condemned to: â€Å"The skirt is ankle-length, full, gathered to a flat yoke that extends over the breasts, the sleeves are full. The white wings too are prescribed issue; they are to keep us from seeing, but also being seen. I never looked good in red, its not my color†(8). This was the dress all the Handmaids were suppose to wear to make them look alike. The narrator rejects her clothes, even though